Category: Sample Library Reviews

The year 2017 marks Britain sample library top-dog Spitfire Audio’s 10th anniversary in business, which is why the brand decided to celebrate this special occasion by enhancing their best-selling product to date – the ALBION ONE epic composer toolkit.

Today we’re taking a look at Spitfire Audio’s hottest addition to their orchestral range of libraries: the Bernard Herrmann Toolkit. Inspired by its iconic namesake, renowned film composer Bernard Herrmann, Spitfire went out to catch the spirit of highly praised classic soundtracks to films like Psycho, Vertigo, Citizen Kane and Taxi Driver – all milestones of 20th century cinema.

Today we’re reviewing 8DIO’s CAGE bundle, a collection of sample library specialized in aleatoric orchestral effects. The bundle combines three different volumes of orchestral sections including strings, brass and woodwinds and is – in words of the developers – the largest collection of orchestral effects ever made.
We’re taking a look under the hood of this 66GB mammoth of a library and find out, if its sounds can convince in an orchestral setup.

DRONAR Live Strings is Gothic Instruments’ latest addition to the developer’s acclaimed DRONAR series of virtual instruments. Performed by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Dronar’s Live Strings Module features a wealth of inspiring string-based textures ranging from natural string performances to orchestral effects and soundscapes. By providing a comprehensive source of expressive tonal beds and cinematic ambiences, Dronar Live Strings seeks to be a modern composer’s hybrid production toolkit that organically mingles traditional orchestral colors with contemporary sound design.

With Espressivo, Sonokinetic expands their renowned range of phrase-based orchestral sample libraries and adds a cinematic toolkit inspired by the musical style of iconic film composers like Jerry Goldsmith (Alien, The Omen) and Bernard Herrmann (Psycho, Vertigo). Let’s jump right in and find out how this brand-new sample library gets on.

BT Phobos is Spitfire Audio’s new poly-convolution synthesizer and the company’s first-ever standalone plugin on the market. It presents a new take on convolution-based synthesis aimed at composers writing epic, cinematic electronic and hybrid compositions. We gave it a test run in this comprehensive review.

Audio Imperia just recently released Decimator Drums – an action orientated cinematic drum ensemble library for film, game and trailer music producers. Decimator Drums was produced by Danish composer and sound designer Martin Hasseldam and it’s the first instrument in Audio Imperia’s upcoming Blockbuster Percussion series.